Rushed out from a client meeting in NYC to arrive at the Sheraton New York Times Square to attend the 2014 Hult Prize Finals Corporate Reception. Arrived on time or so I thought…only to be told that the doors for the event opened later. The event was held alongside the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting and it was a remarkable evening, despite the late start.

Students from across the globe compete for the Hult Prize each year with the winner awarded a Million Dollars in start-up capital to solve a pressing social challenge. The 2014 challenge selected by President Clinton addressed solving the challenge of non-communicable diseases in urban slums. Some startling statistics highlighted the gravity of the healthcare situation and the direct economic impact on account of the chronic diseases affecting the urban poor.

A distinguished panel of judges (see image below) had to select a winner from six dynamic teams that had made it to the finals.

Each team presented novel and innovative ideas that would help address the challenge, complete with financial projections and a business plan. Diabetes management, treating open wounds with affordable devices, addressing dental hygiene, providing affordable eye care were some of the ideas presented. The crowd-favorite was the incredible concept of using bees to detect diseases. Fascinating, really – have been reading about how the bee population has been reducing at alarming levels and the consequences to global agriculture. The idea presented has potential assuming the science is perfected, as it would also encourage bee farming – with other associated benefits. The evening had its fair share of drama with one of the contestants fainting on stage – perhaps from the pressure of presenting in front of an elite panel of judges and a scholarly audience. The winning team (Indian School of Business) presented a comprehensive idea that incorporated not just a diagnostic tool (dox-in-a-box) but also an ecosystem to ensure service to the needy. President Clinton arrived to a standing ovation and announced the winners after a brief but thoughtful speech.

It was remarkable to see the energy of the participants and one truly felt that all of them were deserved winners as each one of them can potentially disrupt established norms and impact mankind, as never before. Read more about the event, the judges, the participants and their ideas at: http://www.hultprize.org/

Overall, a thought provoking evening coupled with some nice conversations with a Nobel laureate and academics from MIT as well as some new friends, one of whom worked with Digital Equipment Corporation…an iconic organization that changed the computing world – for the better, much like the social entrepreneur’s endeavor!

Ed Cohen (ed@nelsoncohen.com) , noted Executive Coach, Leadership Guru and an authority on Global Cultural Team Development was in Bangalore on the 27th August 2014.

ndVOR participated in the Leadership Challenge workshop organized by Nelson Cohen Global Consulting and was represented by their Director of Business Development. Other participants represented names like Capgemini, Cognizant and Western Union and GE Power.

The program was as much about developing leaders as it was about equipping leaders to be future battle ready- ready to face the reality of ever scarce talent across skill sets, verticals and domains.

The day long program consisted of working through the 5 step leadership process for success in leadership roles for contemporary managers and to prepare them for the future- these steps are:

1.Model the Way

2. Inspire a Shared Vision

3. Challenge the Process

4. Enable Others to Act

5. Encourage the Heart

The learning consisted of self-evaluation of attributes across each of the above, followed by learning and practicing inclusivity by working with team members who were strangers before they met at the challenge!

The key takeaways for ndVOR were that in the key enabling step, ndVOR scored very well to emerge as a people oriented organization with people centric value systems- ndVOR fared very well in this segment, compared to their contemporaries and outscored other organizations in the Encourage the Heart segment.

Tools like the “Helping Hand” and “Speed Ideas” were introduced that exemplified simplicity with practicality for the manager.

ndVOR’S participation in the challenge is an affirmation of its commitment to continuous improvement in its systems and people, with the avowed principle to develop leaders and managers of the future to better serve our global clients!

Billboards are an effective medium of communication and for folks like me, who drive long distances; it is always a welcome break to read the smart messages that are plastered along the highways.

A new campaign caught the eye – not once but twice as I drove on the New Jersey Turnpike this past week, so much so that it prompted me to write this piece.

I couldn’t take a picture of the billboard that got my attention as juggling a camera while driving at high speed is something I would rather avoid even though we are all accustomed to multi-tasking nowadays. I figured that I would be able to find it on the Net and not surprisingly, I did find it though I thought the billboard picture was better.

Image Courtesy: Lexus Website

Now, that’s a message that all of us at ndVOR love and can easily relate to: New endeavor…Same pursuit…the pursuit of perfection!

Why didn’t we think of that line?

P.S. I might drive to the turnpike just to take a picture of the billboard…talk of pursuits! Watch this space.

Some terms describe nature while others relate to human nature (moods). Human beings, as is evident, have an intricate relationship with Clouds. IT folks, never to be left behind – have their own Terms…Cloud Computing, Network Cloud, Tag Clouds and so on…

The cloud has been in the news for some time now. Life has been disrupted for all globe-trotters. The Ash Clouds seem to have made a mess of the economy – the airline, travel & tourism business have already lost a few Billion Dollars and we haven’t seen the end of it yet.

Wasn’t the cloud supposed to make life easier?

Yes, if you were to believe all the stories and articles around cloud computing. The fact is that the cloud does appear to be gaining or should I say, gathering momentum. Recent conversations with industry veterans indicate that companies are making their forays into the cloud with some of the small and medium sized businesses moving their mail infrastructure first. The move appears to be working well and for some of them, it is just a matter of time before their applications follow the same path. HR and CRM applications seem to be the first ones off the block. Whether mission-critical applications will eventually find its way into the cloud is a question mark at this time. With Data security and privacy concerns – it may be a while before organizations gather (there I go again) the courage to move completely to the cloud.

They say that you need sun screen even when it is cloudy. Recent events – be it the oil spill or the ash clouds – indicate that the best laid plans can go to waste.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said: ‘It is frankly ridiculous that the flight plans of millions of air passengers are being disrupted on a daily basis by an outdated, inappropriate and imaginary computer-generated model. It is time these charts were done away with.’

Perhaps there is a message in all this…Not only do organizations need to renew their applications…they need to think of cloud cover as well when they deploy their applications!

We all know what women want or do we? The Richard Gere movie takes a light-hearted view towards the fairer sex. Do we know what customers want? In any event, what customers want can never be taken lightly, can we?

Keeping with my decision to be concise, here’s my honest opinion on what customers want: